Gadget Geeks! Time to de -addict! Parent’s Alert!

Food, shelter, clothing and wait…. Did I just miss out something? Oh yeah! mobile phones the fourth basic need of man. Apparently mobiles have become the basic necessities of man. Due to mobile phones “World is at our doorstep”!

With mobile phones we watch operas, netflix, series, NFS, and the god of all, PUBG ! It takes us to places through GPS, we can tour places though gallery, Mobile has taken the job of calender, clock, postman and what not. Our eyes are fixed on screen !

It glows in dark under the blanket, or in low brightness mode at day. We conserve batteries more than our health and energy unaware of the fact how badly it affects our health.

Not only health, It has started hypnotising children. There are some games out there which has hypnotising children making them commit suicide, and do hair – raising acts.

Today if a child holds mobile phone, parents feel proud. Content (age – restricted) which should not be visual to young eyes has also caught their attention, and made them more keen. And they have become already smart enough to turn off parental controls by the time parent’s control. The malicious images, and vulgar images, videos has spoiled young minds, it’s not their folly, but their parent’s.

It is very easy to conceive a child but parenting is not as easy as it is to conceive. When it is time to nurture young minds, they expose themselves to radiation. You don’t educate them by handing them mobiles, it is how you instill virtues and expose them to things at particular age.

There are certain things that should be learnt at particular age, time, reason.” If given prior to particular time it can ruin their future, tender minds and make their lifestyle sedentary, affects eyesight and in severe cases cause addiction then they have to go for de – addiction therapy sessions.

Before writing any article I personally meet people in flesh to learn about their experiences. I met Dr. Sadiq Qureshi from Aurangabad, and he shared with me how he deals with patients who are addicted to phones and alcohol and various drugs.

There are in fact people who fear living without smartphones ,they are designated as nomophobes.

HOW SMARTPHONES AFFECT HEALTH:

By constantly looking at screen you get hunchbacked and you get Myopia. In Asia 80-90% population has Myopia. When you play Candy Crush, it makes you content and makes release of Dopamine, amount of which is equivalent to Cocaine and Nicotine. The apps are designed so as to make release from our brain Dopamines, to addict us.

-It also causes diabetes , cancer and obesity associated with hypertension.– Needless to say, the playgrounds are empty. Gone are those days when at evenings, children used to play in the parks.-It causes brain cancer.– Loss of hearing.– Reduced infertility.

I saw a child patient, who was a mobile geek, her behaviour was heart – wrenching. She was constantly moving her body as if she had seizure. I request my readers to please keep your children away from the tool. It’s a harmful toy.

HOW TO LIMIT USE OF MOBILES:

KEEP TRACK OF TIME: It has become our second nature to keep track of time every 20minute and then we take a detour to other apps. So wear a wrist watch to check time.

CUT DOWN UNNECESSARY APPS: Try deactivating your social media apps until you are out of danger zone. As easy as it sounds. Try to socialise more instead like the good old times, I wrote one quote, ” To maintain relation with fingers, tongue lost it’s motion.” So, lets give our tongue some work, and meet and greet people. Keep yourself occupied and instead of facing mobile, let’s face them.

KEEP CLOSE TABS ON USAGE: Try installing some apps which keeps a check on your usage from play store like AppDetox.

SWITCH OFF: At night , try to switch it off at 12am.

﻿READ YOURSELF TO SLEEP:Instead of keeping your eyes on phone try reading a book this makes you drift to sleep. As the rays coming from screen keeps you awake. When I enquired my brother who stays up at night as he has difficulty sleeping, he says he studies in dim and this dozes him to sleep.

TURN OFF NOTIFICATIONS: Try turning off notifications as much as possible.

In case these tips, don’t work, then you need serious help from doctor to de – addict.

Many people, nowadays go to SPA that are eco – friendly where gadgets are not allowed and take “Smartphone vacation” for hours and couple of days.

My piece of advise, to all readersTry to limit the use for good. As it is a fourth basic necessity it can’t be cut down completely but it’s use can be limited.And Parents should restrict the use only for studies. The more you add apps on screen the more addicting it is.

” I wanted my child to grow, the moment I gave her phone, she stopped growing too.” _Anonymous Parent.

Books are not meant for shelves, it is to be read for our self. _Fatima Hashmi

Read and explore what you don’t know. World is too vast for you _ Fatima Hashmi